Inking arrangement of platen printing presses



June 11, 1940. F. s. THOMPSON INKING ARRANGEMENT 0F PLA'IEN PRINTINGPRESSES Filed Nov. 2, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR a/ r3 7 /J &BFYRANK svnNEYTuonPsou AT T 0R NE Y Patented June 11, 1940 INKINGARnANGEMENroF PLATEN PRINTING PRESSES Frank Sydney Thompson, Manchester,England, assignor to T. C. Thompson & Son, Limited,

Manchester, England Application November 2, 1938, Serial No; 238,312

In Great Britain December 1,1937

zciaims. (01. 101-340) .1

This invention has reference to the inking ar rangements of platenprinting presses, of the kindwherein a rider or smoothing rollerarranged to travel with the inking rollers and to rotate in contact.with one or more. of them has imparted to it an axial to-and-fromovementor reciprocation relative to the inking rollers to ensure uniform inkingof the type and .wipe out marks.

In the inking arrangements of platen printing presses it is commonpractice to utilise the rotation of the inking rollers or their runnersor of therider rollers themselves in conjunction with some form ofscroll or screw-and-nut mechanism to effect the to-and-fro movement orreciprocation of the rider rollers. Such arrangements have to bekeptsmall to avoid undueweight which is an objection especially in thecase of a fast running machine. Further, where a revolving drum isusedto supply the ink to the inking rollers (which arrangement considerablyreduces the oscillatory travel of the rollers) the revolutions of theinking and rider rollers in their two directions are unequal whichnecessitates the provision of compensating slip means when the inkingrollers are revolved by the drum, and if the drum revolves the rollersin the direction of their downward or inking run (as should be the case)the arrangement is sometimes inefiicient owing to rockable member ormembers pivoted on one or' both of the swinging arms which carry theinking rollers and adapted to be rocked about its or their 45 pivot orpivots. during the oscillations of said arms.

In the accompanying drawings Fig. l is a fragmentary side view and Fig.2 is a like plan of a platen printing press comprising one embodiment toof theinvention, Fig. 3 is a side view to a larger scale of one of theend brackets in which the inking and rider rollers are mounted and thea. sociated .rod, hereinafter more particularly referred to, for axiallyreciprocating the rider roller, 55 Fig. 4 is a plan partly in section ofthe bracket and Fig. 5 is'a view also partly insection of the bracketlooking on the left-hand side of Fig. 3.

Referring to thedrawings, 6, 1 indicates the side frames of the machine,8 indicates the fixed platen on which the type is mounted and 9indicates the movable platen which carries the sheet to be printed. Inthe side frames 5, 1 arms II], II are pivoted at l2, l3 about whichlatter the arms are oscillated by means of links It (Fl-g. 1) and mcranks l5 fixed on a shaft M which is suitably driven from the mainshaft of the machine. In T the arms Ill, 1 I, which are of channelsection, are slidably mounted rods ll, it which have mounted on themsprings I9, 26 thrusting between the ends 10a, Ha, of the arms andcollars Ha, 18a, fixed on the rods I1, I8 so as to urge the latterinwards.

The outer ends of the rods ll, l8 carry saddles or hooked brackets 2|,22 which are rockably mounted on pivots 23, 24. The ends of the rods 20l1, H! are formed with tongues llb, 3b, which take into slots 2m, Fig.5, in the saddles or brackets 21, 22. The pivots 23, 24 are formed.

with collars 23a, 24a, which are secured to the saddles or brackets2|,22 by screws 2| b, Fig. 5, 5

and also with extensions 231) on which lugs 25, 26 are mounted andsecured by nuts 23c, 240.

The spindles 21a, 28a of the inking rollers 21,

28 are rotatably mounted in the saddles or brackets 2|, 22 and betweenthe inking rollers a rider roller 29, adapted to be pivotably rotated byand in contact with said rollers, has its spindle 29a slidably mountedin the lugs 25, 26.

On the oscillatory arm ID the shorter arm of an Lshaped lever 30 ispivoted at 3!. In the longer arm of the lever 30 is slidably mounted arod 32 having its outer end formed with a yoke 33 through which thespindle 29a of the rider roller 29 extends. The spindle 29a is retainedin the yoke33 by a keep 34 and collars 35, 36 40 are fixed on thespindle one on either side of the yoke. At the junction between the armsof the lever 30 there is pivoted at 31 one end of a link 38 the otherend of which is pivoted at 39, a little below the pivot [2 of the arml0, in a bracket 40 fixed on the side frame 6.

During reciprocation of the arms II], ll between their extreme positionsindicated by the dot-and-dash lines X, X Fig. 1, the inking rollerstravel to and fro between the positions indicated in dotted lines at Y,Y and the rider roller 29 travels in thesame path as, and rotates incontact with, the inking rollers in the usual way. Owing to theeccentricity of the pivot 39 of the link 38 relatively to the pivot l2of the arm ID, the pivot 3| of the lever 30 moves in arcuate path Z,Fig. 1, about the centre l2 while the pivot 31 of the link moves in thearcuate path Z about the centre 39. The effect of the relativelyeccentric paths of the pivots 3|, 3'! is that during the downwardmovements of the arms Ill, H and inking rollers 21, 28 from thepositions X, Y, Fig. 1, to the positions X Y the lever 30 is caused torock on its pivot 3| and reciprocate the rider roller 29 away from theobserver in Fig. 1, i. e. in the direction indicated by the arrow W inFig. 2, and during the return movements of the arms In, H and inkingrollers 21, 28 from the positions X ,Y Fig. 1, to the positions X, Y,the lever 30 is caused to rock on its pivot 3|, in the oppositedirection to formerly, and reciprocate the rider roller 29 towards theobserver in Fig. 1, i. e. in the direction indicated by the arrow W inFig. 2.

When the inking rollers 21, 28 are in the position indicated in dottedlines at Y, Fig. 1, they contact with, and are frictionally driven by,and pick up ink from, the positively driven drum 4|. The drum 4| isdriven and has ink supplied to it in the known ways.

The spindle 29a of the rider roller 29 is free to move laterally in theyoke 33 in order that it may partake of the pivoting movements of theinking rollers 27, 28 and the saddles or brackets 2|, 22 about thepivots23, 24 of the latter, and so maintain itself in proper engagement withthe inking rollers.

If desired the oscillatory arm I I may also have associated with itmeans as described for reciprocating the rider roller 29. In such casethe pivot corresponding to the pivot 39 of the lever 38 will be arrangedat a corresponding point above the pivot l3 of the arm II.

It will be apparent that by appropriate multiplication of the mechanismdescribed, or coupling together two or more such mechanisms, two or morerider rollers may be given axial to-and-fro motions or reciprocations inunion or independently of each other.

I claim:

1. In the ink spreading arrangement of a platen printing press,including a reciprocating member pivoted on the frame of the press andcarrying a plurality of ink spreading rollers, an

L-shaped member one arm of which is pivoted at a point on saidreciprocating member, the other arm of which is connected to one of saidrollers, and a link pivoted at one end to the frame on an axisnoncoincident with that of the reciprocating member and pivotallyattached at its other end to the L-shaped member, whereby uponreciprocation of said reciprocating member a lateral motion is given tothe one of said rollers relative to the others.

2. In the ink spreading arrangement of a platen printing press,including a reciprocating member pivoted on the frame of the press andcarrying a plurality of ink spreading rollers, an L-shaped member onearm of which is pivoted at a point along the axis of said reciprocatingmember, the other arm of which is connected to one of said rollers andthe juncture of the two arms of which is connected by a rod to the frameof said press in a vertical line with and below the point of support ofsaid reciprocating member, whereby a lateral motion is given to one ofsaid rollers relative to the others of said rollers.

FRANK SYDNEY THOMPSON.

